Well, today is the unofficial last day of my summer vacation. I don't have to "officially" go to work until Tuesday, but there is a lot of prepping for the first real day so I will be going into the office tomorrow. I get nervous and excited this time every year, but for some reason I feel it more this year than in the past. I guess there are a few reasons for this.
I LOVE my job! I have worked really hard to get educated about what early intervention is. I have put in countless hours studying and preparing so that I can provide the best services possible to my children. Much of what I do comes naturally to me. Sometimes I think to myself, "I can't believe they pay me to do this!" Most of my job is really fun and even though some of the progress I see in students is slow, I do see progress! It is such a blessing to watch them as they work on mastering skills that will help them as they progress through school. It is almost like I get to witness little miracles on a daily basis!
I love watching children enter the classroom early in the school year with looks of amazement when they study the different objects and learning centers in the resource classroom. I love watching them as they learn how to play. That is what much of my job is. I teach children how to PLAY! Is that not the coolest?
Many of the children I serve start out with no language skills at all. It makes my heart leap to hear them as they share their first "real ideas" with me. You know, this is the time when they can look me in the eye and tell me what they want or need instead of just parroting what they might have heard me say to them. It's almost like I can really see a light bulb turn on and the world is automatically opened to them. Like I said, it's a miracle and one of the most fun parts of my job. It makes a lot of the nonsense I have to deal with more tolerable!
I am excited this year because I feel like I know what I am doing more than I ever have in the past.
I have so many plans for myself and my students. I want to be better for myself, my co-workers, the children I serve and their parents. I want to present myself as a real professional educator. I want the children I serve to know how much I genuinely care about them. I want them to know that they are loved! I want them to feel safe in my classroom and to know that it is the kind of place where they can be free to explore and learn.
I know how stressed and busy regular education teachers are. I hope that I will be able to lighten their load in some ways. I just want them to know that I want to be a part of a team whose goal is to work with students so that they are prepared when it is time for them to move in the academic world. I am blessed to have a really good relationship with the majority of the faculty members that I work with. This year I want to develop some kind of positive professional with ALL the teachers and para-educators I work with. I don't profess to know everything about early childhood education, but I would like to be the best resource that I can be.
I am really excited about the upcoming school year. There have been some major changes all over the parish and I am anxious to see how the new environments are going to be! I can not wait to see what my former students have been up to and even more anxious to meet my new students. I get this "beginning of the school year jittery" feeling every year and I hope that it never goes away!
I also have some other countdowns going on. It seems like I always have a countdown going for something! Well here are a few of the countdowns that I have:
- Labor Day camping trip with family 12 days
- Hot Springs camping trip with friends 47 days
- Johnnie retires from the police department in 104 days
- 10 Year Wedding Anniversary & Alaska cruise 307 days
Ok so those are the things that are on my mind most. I know it's going to be a busy and GREAT YEAR!!!
In other news, I am still on my diet. It's going pretty well. I have been working in some kind of physical activity into my day at least 3 days a week. I don't know exactly how that will go when school starts, but I am going to make a real effort to keep active. I am hoping to be able to wake up early enough to get some workout time in before I have to get ready for school. I think that early mornings are the best time. I am afraid that if I waited til after school I might not be able to sleep. Anyway, I will let you know how it goes.
Oh, and I am also in the process of working with some of my cousins to try to organize some kind of cousin reunion some time during the holidays this year. Several of us had talked about wanting to do something, but I didn't know if we'd really all be interested when the time came. I am happy to report that after sending out messages to every cousin whose contact information I had, I was pleased to hear that over half of us were interested in getting together.
My mother's side of the family is really big. She was one of seven children and six of them are still alive. There are a tons of grandchildren (my first cousins). Some of my fondest memories centered around family get togethers. Holidays didn't feel right unless there were at least 50 people coming to dinner. We all went to the river to be with my grandparents and aunt and uncle for many years. Then, after my grandparents moved into my parents home the get togethers relocated to there. When my mother passed away, for whatever reason, those get togethers stopped. For the first few years it was fine with me if we didn't get together. In my grief at losing my mother I insulated myself against possible further heartache by not wanting to participate in any kind of holiday activities.
That was the way that I felt until my sweet Beckham came along. Now, looking back, I can see how misguided that was and I just look really forward to trying to rekindle relationships.
Ok so those are the things that are foremost on my mind. I know this year is going to be busy and I am really looking forward to it!
So, this is the last blog post before I start back to school. I will be back some time next week to report how it went. Stay tuned!!!
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